Offshore windfarms

Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) is in the pre-application phase for two new offshore wind farm projects in the East Anglia zone. They are currently in the construction phase of East Anglia One (granted consent by the Secretary of State in June 2014) and the post-planning phase of East Anglia Three (granted consent by the Secretary of State in August 2017).

East Anglia One North

The project is located approximately 36km from Lowestoft in an area of 209km² with a potential generating capacity of up to 800 megawatts.

The district and county councils are taking a joint local authority approach to the proposals and where possible responding jointly.

The proposals are being dealt with as two Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. There are proposed to be six key milestones in the planning phase of the proposals: they are currently running simultaneously but this may change in the future:

Phase 1: Informal Public Information Days (PIDs) - Completed

Phase 2: Formal PIDs - Completed 17 April 2018

Phase 3: Formal PIDs - Completed 28 August 2018

Phase 3.5: Formal PIDs - Completed 12 November 2018

Phase 4: Formal PIDs - Completed 9 March 2019

Submission of Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Secretary of State – the DCO will be developed following the refinement of proposals from the consultation phases. The Planning Inspectorate will lead an assessment of the proposals. The local authorities are stakeholders in the process and not the determining authority.

Decision by the Secretary of State – following its assessment, the Planning Inspectorate will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State will make their final decision within three months of receiving the recommendation.

We responded to the Planning Inspectorate in relation to the Scoping Opinion:

The third round of public consultation (Phase 3.5) began on 29 September2018.

On 17 October 2018, together with Suffolk County Council, we sent a joint letter to Scottish Power Renewables, requesting an extension of the consultation period by two weeks in Phase 3.5 for East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms.

The fourth round of public consultation (Phase 4) is currently taking place which begun on 11 February and closes on 26March 2019. The Council is currently working with Suffolk County Council on a joint response to the consultation.

The head line comments to be contained in the Phase 4 response were formally agreed in Cabinet meetings of the Councils, on 11March 2019 by Suffolk Coastal District Council’s Cabinet and on 12 March by Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet.

Suffolk Coastal District Council’s Cabinet report on East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms